Mary sat down on the milk cases to wait for Bea. Bea was slower coming up the stairs and still buttoning the top two buttons of her dress. She was dragging her ass, tired.
“Girl is all messed up,” she said to Bill out in the hall right in front of Mary. “Girl is mad at you and at herself too.”
“No reason for her to be mad,” Bill said. “She knows how I feel about her. I don’t feel like that about anyone else. No one.”
“What about me?” Bea asked.
“What about you?”
“Go on break my heart,” Bea said.
Bill went over and put his hand on Bea’s breast over her heart. “You mean there’s a heart in there?”
“For you, all of my feelings are down here.” Bea pointed to that spot between her legs. She smiled, laughed, looked at Mary. “Let’s go, girl. You need help getting up?”
Mary was busy scratching her coochie. “I don’t need no help,” she said.
“Need help scratching your coochie?” Bill asked.
“I don’t need nothing from you.”
Mary didn’t bother to look inside the kitchen. Jimmy was not on the line although he had gotten there. Esserine was on the pantry station. She had been there since four, her usual time. Grandma was not in yet. In the full scope of things, Grandma not being in did not matter much. The worst that would happen would be they wouldn’t serve fried chicken.
“Get some good sleep,” Bill said to Mary as she walked past him and out the door. He had a terrible urge to reach out and feel her up and he would have done so if the bell had not rung. Hearing the bell, he simply let her pass and walked into the kitchen.
All his girls were working. Lexi, Norma, Lorraine, Arlene and Victoria were all on. This meant he would have no trouble getting beers when he wanted them. This meant he would have no trouble getting bourbon if he wanted it. This meant he could even have some fun out in the hall shooting the shit and messing around. It was a strain-the-grease night, so if it was slow and there were no late orders he had a good chance of getting out early.
We plan. God laughs.
Bill sat on the milk cases once he’d read the dupe. There was nothing on it that he needed to do immediately. It was an order for shrimp cocktail, a chef salad and a prime rib. He knew that Lorraine, whose order it was, would come get him when she was ready for the hot food. In the meantime, Esserine would do her thing and the customers would do theirs. So while he had a moment, he went outside around back of the building and smoked a joint.
That’s where Jimmy found him and when he did he told Bill that orders were coming in and he was needed on the line. Bill finished the joint quickly and followed Jimmy inside.
They worked on and off, mostly on, until ten-thirty. Every now and then one of them would take a break, go out in the hall to smoke a cigarette or downstairs to pee. For the most part they had enough orders to keep them both on the line.
The girls working seemed pretty pleased by the number of customers they had, although for waitresses it could always be more. None of the girls played around, not because they didn’t want to, but because they didn’t have time to do so. They brought soft drinks for Jimmy and the dishwashers, beer for Bill. Twice Lorraine brought Bill a double bourbon which she gave to him out in the hall.
Then they were into the end-game where the waitresses were ordering their own dinners and the early girls were getting ready to close out. It was looking like Bill would have a chance to be out on time. But then six late tables came in.
And so it goes.
